Abstract [en]

In Sweden, many co-operative societies lease land to its members through residential tenancy. How the residential tenancy should be looked after is not regulated by law and often not even in the tenancy contract. Sometimes the contract stipulates that the tenant must be a member of the co-operative society in order to rent. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the possibility for the co-operative society to restrict a residential tenants total right to use the tenancy by regulating how it should be looked after in the statutes and with which majority such a decision should be made. The clause stipulating that a tenant must be a member of the co-operative society is also analyzed to see what effect it has on the majority decision. A residential tenant is considered to have total right to use the tenancy a thus be able for himself to decide how the tenancy should be looked after. Current rules require two thirds majority for a co-operative society to change its statutes and sometimes even higher majority. Certain decisions can be very restrictive to the individual member's right and changing such a statute should not be possible unless all members agree to it. Restrictions on the tenant's total tenancy by inserting rules in the co-operative society’s statute should be possible. There is freedom of contract in civil law. The requirement of written contract and the purpose behind it is also fulfilled. A decision to introduce requirement on how to look after the tenancy should require full majority. The line between requiring unanimity or a two-thirds majority is fine, but most of the reasons speak for unanimity. If the tenancy contract stipulates that the tenant must be a member of the co-operative society in order to rent, very strong reasons speak for the decision to require unanimity as the members’ right to leave the co-operative society becomes illusory.